Question

Disable back button with PHP

Asked by: liltyga

Hello,

I have a client that needs the back button disabled. I'm using windows and IE, but want to accomodate as many browsers and OSs as possible. I'm currently using a JavaScript solution, but my client found a way to get it not to work. This is really frustrating, but the client is really pressing the issue.  any ideas?

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Asked On
2004-07-25 at 20:11:27ID21070840
Tags

php

,

back

,

button

,

disable

Topic

PHP Scripting Language

Participating Experts
10
Points
500
Comments
19

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Answers

 

by: ThaSmartUnoPosted on 2004-07-25 at 20:19:49ID: 11634553

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Web/Web_Languages/PHP/Q_21069875.html#11627939

you could try that ... but again that is javascript

I would recommend storing cookies or session variables to say which page you are on or should be on.  So if they click back, they can view the information, but once they click anything it will goto that page and say that you are supposed to be here ... click here, or something to that nature

 

by: ThaSmartUnoPosted on 2004-07-25 at 20:23:01ID: 11634558

also found this ... on http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.header.php

<?php
// Date in the past
header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT");

// always modified
header("Last-Modified: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s") . " GMT");
 
// HTTP/1.1
header("Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate");
header("Cache-Control: post-check=0, pre-check=0", false);

// HTTP/1.0
header("Pragma: no-cache");
?>

so if you do this hopefully the browser may not cache the page, which would allow the session to check when the click the back button

 

by: merwetta1Posted on 2004-07-25 at 22:25:50ID: 11634842

tell your client he is wrong to take the back button away. crippling your audience's ability to see what they want isn't helpful to anybody.

and then use ThaSmartUno's session var idea (maybe even combined with the JavaScript)   ;)

 

by: liltygaPosted on 2004-07-25 at 22:31:06ID: 11634863

I told my client that - beleive me - but to no avail :( - I'll try the session var idea but I had already seen that; isn't it's goal to prevent refreshing?  The client doesn't even want the option to refresh.  I think he's being way too picky - the back button is there for a reason! Thanks for your input though

 

by: goose95Posted on 2004-07-26 at 00:40:00ID: 11635307

The ThaSmartUno solution is good. You use the session var to check to see if the browser already see this page (and so use the back button), and if yes, you redirect him to the next page.


My way to view this:

Disable caching (ThaSmartUno comment), and store the current page number in a cookie var or a session var, and when changing page, backup this value each time.

In the header of your HTML, you check the last page value, and if it's not following the correct order, you reject the client and put him on the right page.

 

by: RockStiffrodPosted on 2004-07-26 at 05:39:58ID: 11636702

Along with other suggestions, create an array of pages running in the order that your client wants them visited in, include this on all pages.

Check the current page position in the array with the $lastPageVisited variable (if this is not set, do a header location to the first page in the array), if lastPageVisited appears after currentPage in the array, it is a 'back' - send a header location to the next page in the array after lastPagevisited.
Update your $lastPage variable with the current page when it is a step forwards.

This is terrible practice, as has been mentioned and if I stumbled across your clients website and things happened not as expected I would be out of there like a shot.

Depending on the number of pages he wants to break the browser standards for, I would consider creating a flash movie/presentation with a one way navigation sysytem.

 

by: eeBlueShadowPosted on 2004-07-26 at 05:53:32ID: 11636775

Agreed. Tell your client that if I click the back button and it dowsn't work, the next button I press is the close button. Immediately. It's *my* browser, not yours.

_Blue

 

by: bitter_chickenPosted on 2004-07-26 at 07:37:21ID: 11637751

Lol forget the ethics - maximize mooley I say!

Here's another poss. php solution- very easy to implement - use a 'redirection' page as such:

Link on page A:
====
<a href="redirect.php?go=actualpage.php">Link</a>
====

Redirect Page Code:
====
<?php
$loc = $_GET['go'];
Header ("Location: " . $loc);
?>
====

Then if they click back, BAM! Straight back again!

 

by: bitter_chickenPosted on 2004-07-26 at 07:43:20ID: 11637816

Hello again! This javascript just hides the nav bar - so they dont see a back button

Disadvantage is it is in a pop-up window :(

<a href="javascript:;" onClick="window.open('realpage.php','','location=yes,status=yes,menubar=yes,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes')">Link</a>

combine it with the prev. solution to really jam them up!

 

by: Diablo84Posted on 2004-07-26 at 08:00:25ID: 11638015

ive been working on this for awhile, its less straight forward then i had imagined

ive implemented the system using sessions

one thing very important, this will prevent you from even clicking a link back to the page you came from so i added a safeguard. for links add ?safe to the end of them and it will bypass the redirection

eg. if you come from a.php then go to b.php

<a href="a.php">clicking this link will not allow you to go back</a>
<a href="a.php?safe">clicking this link will allow you to go back</a>

i am having one final problem getting it working which is clicking the back button seems to still work which suggests to me that there is a problem with the cache prevention, im not sure, still working on it. this is the code at the moment though

<a hr<?php
session_start();
header("Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate");
header("Cache-Control: post-check=0, pre-check=0", false);
header("Pragma: no-cache");
if (isset($_SESSION['prev']) && $_SESSION['prev'] == $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']) {
 if (!isset($_GET['safe'])) {
  $redirect = $_SESSION['cur'];
  $_SESSION['cur'] = $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];
  header("location: $redirect");
  exit;
 }
}
if (isset($_SESSION['cur'])) {
 $_SESSION['prev'] = $_SESSION['cur'];
}
$_SESSION['cur'] = $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];
?>

you would be wise to put it in a file then include that file in your main pages

 

by: Diablo84Posted on 2004-07-26 at 08:01:27ID: 11638022

dont need <a hr at the top of the code, copy and paste error

 

by: pYraniaPosted on 2004-07-26 at 08:04:23ID: 11638063

its not possible with php. POINT.
your php script executed on the server side and only the generated [x]html page is return to the client side and interpreted from the browser.
you need to use a language that runs/ is interpreted on the client side, but unfortunately there is no way to archive that.

 

by: Diablo84Posted on 2004-07-26 at 08:08:21ID: 11638114

If the page is not cached then in theory upon hitting the back button the browser will have to send another request to the server which will in turn recompile the page and return it to be outputted in the browser.

With that in mind in theory it is possible, theory is not always as reliable as we would like though.

 

by: Diablo84Posted on 2004-07-26 at 08:20:28ID: 11638238

i am aborting working on this, as i said above theory is much less reliable then we would like.

You might want to try combining the existing Javascript method with my example above but im out of ideas.

 

by: bearwarePosted on 2004-07-27 at 07:08:21ID: 11646565

make it so the site can not be viewd except with a special browser that does not have a back key.

 

by: gsmith000001Posted on 2004-07-29 at 12:33:05ID: 11670471

Disabling the back button wont help because an informed user can always press ALT+LEFTARROW or use the back/forward buttons on their keyboard if they have a fancy one.

Utilizing sessions through php will help, but only to a degree as the user can still track the POST/GET vars and recall the ones they want to display the pages they want, even if they are not cached.

If the information is being sent to the user once, their is always a way they will be able to recover/screen capture/grab it again, even if cache etc is disabled.

Greg

 

by: liltygaPosted on 2004-07-30 at 13:08:06ID: 11680970

Thanks so much for everyone's great feedback!  I will try to split the points accordingly

 

by: liltygaPosted on 2004-07-30 at 13:10:28ID: 11680991

BTW, the solution the client wanted that I ended up implementing - which to me is really annoying - is this: launching the form submission in a new window with target=_blank, and closing the page before that with a javascript self.close.  They client's always right.....right?

 

by: ThaSmartUnoPosted on 2004-07-30 at 14:29:09ID: 11681539

Good luck with that client =)

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